3 Pt Pto-Driven Stump Grinder

3 Pt Pto-Driven Stump Grinder POWER TAKE OFFS (PTO'S) Power Take Offs (PTO's) 18-2-7 A Maryland farmer who didn't want to spend the money for a commercial stump grinder built his own 3-pt., pto-driven stump grinder from scratch. "It grinds stumps down to 6 in. below ground level and keeps soil disturbance to a minimum," says Robert Weer, of Goldsboro. He used 1/4-in. thick, 3-in. sq. tubing to build a frame that supports the 20-in. dia. grinding wheel. A pair of 24-in. long, 3-in. dia. double acting hydraulic cylinders, one on each side of the frame, slide the grinding wheel back and forth over the stump as it grinds. The grinding wheel slides on mounting brackets that are lined with "slippery" 1/2-in. thick, 12-in. long nylon pads (made from household cutting boards). The 1,000 rpm pto shaft telescopes in or out with the grinding wheel. "It will grind a 6-in. dia. stump down below ground level in only 5 minutes," says Weer. "To grind stumps bigger than 1 ft. in diameter, I make one pass, then move the tractor over 8 in. and repeat the process. I use a 90 hp tractor to operate it. I modeled it after a commercial model I had seen. The commercial model sells for $4,500.1 built m ine for only about $1,200. I had been using a bulldozer to remove stumps, but it left big holes in the ground. My grinder saves me a lot of money when clearing land because our local tree grinding service charges $40 per stump. I've used it to grind over 100 stumps so far." The 20-in. grinding wheel is made from an 18-in. by 5/8-in. toothless sprocket fitted with 18 replaceable carbide tip bits. The toothless sprocket is equipped with a series of pockets lined up in pairs. The bits are held on by cap screws that go through slots between the pairs of pockets. The 2-in. dia. pto driveshaft is equipped with relube bearings and protected by a shear bolt. The chip diverter shield over the grinding wheel can be removed without wrenches by rotating four cam-type levers. A piece of 4-in. dia. PVC protects the hydraulic cylinder on the output side of the cylinder. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert Weer, 25250 Bridgetown Road, Goldsboro, Md. 21636 (ph 410482-7237),

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